Castle ending, episode 1, season 3
by PhaetonLane
Summary: This episode ending has been rattling in my head for weeks. One day I will write a beginning and a middle.


This is my fantasy regarding the last scene of the first episode of Season 3. Case is already solved. Setting is the hangout for the local cops and detectives. Esposito has already left for the night.

Castle scanned the barroom, putting the Corona bottle to his lips. His eyes landed on Beckett, then, sitting next to her at the other end of the bar, Demming. Squeezing in between them, coming out of the crowd, was a blonde-haired woman. She slid her arm around Demming's shoulders. He turned his face to hers and gave the woman a quick kiss on the lips. Beckett gave the woman a perfunctory smile and extended her hand.

"Hey, did you see that?" Castle called to Ryan, nodding in Beckett's direction.

After a few words to Beckett, the couple walked hand in hand toward the door.

"Oh yeah. She didn't tell you, did she," Ryan replied. His cell phone rang. "Beckett dumped him just before you left for the Hamptons that day." He looked at the screen. "Hey, Castle, I've got to take this. Gotta go." He answered the call with a "Hi, hon," then made his way to the exit.

Castle felt as if Ryan hit him with his Corona. He stared at Beckett, his mind flashing back to that day at the precinct. "'Can I talk to you for a minute, Castle?'" she had said to him. "'I know I'm a hard person to get to know, but I just wanted to tell you that I—'" then . . . Gina.

His breath caught in his throat. He stared at her, his legs taking him to her, a sense of urgency in his approach. He finally made eye contact with her, and once he did, she looked down at her Johnny Walker, trying to avoid what she thought was coming.

"I suppose you saw that, right?" Kate said as he reached her side, still taking in her face. "If you came here to gloat or to make fun of me, please don't, Castle. It's been a rough summer in so many ways. I—"

He bent his head close to hers and gently placed his index finger on her lips as he said, "What were you going to tell me the day I left for the Hamptons?"

His touch on her lips electrified her, erasing any words she could form in that moment. "Uhhh," she sighed, closing her eyes. She paused, then finally said, "It's too late for that now . . . There's no need—"

Once again he touched her lips, then skimmed his finger across her jaw. Her skin flushed pink. "Would it help you to know that Gina left after two weeks?" he whispered. He raised his head and sighed. "The pleasant phone calls she and I had before we left dissolved into the usual diatribes and insults. It seems we bring out the worst in each other." He paused, thinking about how much he should tell her. "She came back every now and then just to check on my progress." He looked almost embarrassed as he said it. "In the end, she got her book, nothing else."

Kate closed her eyes and sighed again, trying to put together the words she had wanted to tell him so many weeks ago. "I wanted to say … I wanted to say. Jeez, I don't remember exactly what I wanted to say then. But what I want to say now is . . . you're . . . you're this bundle of contradictions."

Castle grinned.

"You're arrogant, but you're thoughtful. You're egotistical, but you're a great dad. You're self-absorbed, but you care about others. I'm so confused by you. But at the same time . . ." She ran a hand through her hair and then inhaled deeply. "Look, since my mother was killed, I've been kinda numb. It's all been too serious. But here you are, in my life, and you make it . . . fun. The job is still hard, but you've turned on a light, and I don't want it to fade away. You've become . . . important to me." She gazed at his face to see whether what she just admitted would, soon enough, make her feel like a fool. "

"Have you ever seen the movie _Picnic_ with William Holden and Kim Novak?" Castle asked.

Kate's eyes focused on his for the first time. "Yeah, I've seen it. It's based on the Inge play." She was trying to understand the context. _Where is he going with this?_ she thought.

"He plays a guy named Hal, who's a real blowhard but who's also pretty much down on his luck, never really caught a break in life. And he's always in a hurry to get in on the next big thing, but those chances never really work out for him. But when he admits to the Kim Novak character his love for her, he says, 'You make me feel patient.' And . . ." He paused, trying to get the words right. "And that's what I feel with you." It came out in a whisper, but when it did, he felt almost weightless, lifted to the nearest cloud.

Castle shook his head as he continued. "All my adult life, everything's been within my reach. And I've taken advantage of that." He smirked as he recalled some past behavior that he wasn't particularly proud of. "But I've waited months and months for you to see that I'm not _only_ that arrogant jerk." He touched her cheek, cupping her jaw with his palm. "And I'm really happy that you have." He moved his head back a bit from her face. "But I'm also hearing you're not quite convinced."

They both flashed knowing smiles.

"I want to prove to you that my good outweighs the bad, Kate. I'm asking you for that chance." Before she answered, he threw in one more point for her to think about. "Hey, I'm vulnerable too. I know I've made mistakes that I would rather not make again. How do you think _I _feel that my sixteen-year-old daughter is more emotionally intelligent than I am?"

Kate grinned, then heaved another sigh. He lit up her world like a pinball machine. She knew it. It had been a decade since her mom's death, since anyone could make her feel as jazzed as he did. The end, if there were to be one, would be extraordinarily painful. She knew that too. _But I've been miserable for so long. If he crushed my heart, how much worse could I possibly feel?_ "Look, I know that I keep barriers way up, so it's hard for anyone to get to know me really well."

"Yes, Detective, I'm well aware of that," he said. "But I'm hoping you'll trust me."

"We could be in for some deep disappointment_, _you know," she said as he nodded in agreement. "But we could also be in for the ride of a lifetime."

"I like the odds. I think we owe it to ourselves to at least give it a shot."

She paused, then said, "OK. I'm in."


End file.
